recording, recording and oh, more recording...

I know I haven't written in a while and honestly this nice weather has made me severely lazy. I think its a good thing I'm not online as much anymore. But, today it's cloudy, cold and rainy so I guess it's time to play catch up. Y'all might have been wondering what I've been up to these last few months...or not. But a side from a few gigs here and there. I've been writing and recording a ton. A ton might be a understatement, simply because I have been putting in at least 60 hours a week tracking this thing. This is more than I have ever done in my entire life for just one record. I've been doing a combination of recording at home on my own and with Joel Pack (Aquarius Sound) and Dallan Rees(Db Sound) at their studios.

joel

drew

We tracked drums and bass with Joel for the songs "Without Warning" and "Taken". These are actually going to be the only full band songs we are recording on this record. This album will be primarily acoustic. Drew Fergeson , who also played drums on "Parades" came in and tracked the drums in within 2 hours. Not bad for a guy that hadn't played in 4 months.

I don't mention this guy enough and honestly Drew has stuck with me through the last 4 years through thick and thin. He was the original drummer on "Some Place New". He was there when it all started. I'm so lucky that he's still around to help me out.

three mics and a guitar

joels baby grand

I went in to pick up tracks from Joel at his house one random Saturday and I spontaneously asked if he had a couple of hours to help me demo a few songs before his band "Broke" left on tour. He surprisingly said yes. He went to go grab lunch, while I offered to set up for him. While he was gone I was just doodling on his piano and wrote a song called "One Day" in about 20 minutes. We ended up tracking it when he got back just for fun. I was so happy with the way it came out, its going on the record.

We also hammered out "The Sound", "Maybe" and "On a Sunday Afternoon"(which is a song I wrote for my grandfather who passed last month). These will all be on the record as well. They have a different feel than anything I've done before. These is more of a intimate feel. These sound more singer/songwriter than anything I've ever put out. In stead of pounding on the guitar, there is a quite a bit of finger picking and even playing without a pick. We used no click track and its extremely raw. Just three microphones. Me and my guitar. Just the way they did it in the old days.

dallan

Dallan...well this is the guy behind every record I've done in some way since 2004. He has saved my life on so many occasions I owe him mine. Without him the last 4 records would have never seen the light of day. He is also responsible for getting me on 101.9 The End this year, which I thought would be impossible.

He's co-producing this new record with me and honestly has done almost all the tracking and mixing. We just finished tracking "Look Out", "All I Had", "Without Warning", "Ready or Not","Stay" and "Taken". In the next month we will be mixing and mastering all the songs hopefully for a Fall release at a secret location yet to be announced. I cannot tell you how happy I am with these mixes so far and I really can't wait to show people the final product. I'm trying things I've never tried before. These songs are going places I really never really thought i'd touch. This entire record will be the most versatile thing I've ever done. I'm not going to play the majority of these songs live yet. I want them to be a surprise.

Sorry... this was a pretty hefty update and I'm sure not a lot of you read the whole thing. If you didn't I totally understand. For those of you who did...well...thanks for taking the time.